The Darkest Materials: Sammael's Call
by Traskold
Summary: Third in The Darkest Materials Collection. A mysterious message pulls a revolutionary leader across Universes, to save two children from a terrible fate.
1. The Horse

**Author's Notes and Disclaimer:**

**- Anything in _italics_ is lifted directly from ****_The Horse and His Boy. _****I make no claim to it.**

**- All speech in _*italics*_ is Quenya.**

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**Sammael's Call**

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**I - The Horse**

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_At that moment everyone's feelings were completely altered by a sound from behind..._

The horses flew like the wind over the ridge and down into another valley.

_It was the same snarling roar he had heard that moonlit night when they first met Aravis and Hwin..._

The grass crumpled under their hooves and as fear shot through Bree's heart

_And Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast - not quite as fast - as he could..._

His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared with heat. The adrenaline made his veins tingle, from nose to tail.

_Shasta felt the change at once. Now they were really going all out..._

He saw Hwin fall behind a few lengths. She wouldn't make it.

_A huge tawny creature, its body low to the ground... And it was getting nearer every second and half second..._

Then, suddenly a large green wall appeared out of the undergrowth. It was completely smooth save for a gate in the middle.

_"Stop... Must go back. Must help!"_

As if he could slow down in time. Never.

_One of the most terrible noises in the world, a horse's scream, broke from Hwin's lips..._

But Shasta was gone! He'd jumped off his back in full gallop.

_And now all three - Aravis, Hwin, and the lion - were almost on top of Shasta._

Silly human-foal.

_But before they reached him the lion rose on its hind legs, larger than you would have believed a lion could be, and..._

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...with a blinding flash of light a third horse materialised between Aravis and the Lion, its rider blazing with white fire.

He gripped a long, curved sword in one hand - not like the Calormene scimitar, but neither like the perfectly straight Northern swords the Prince Edmund and Lord Peridan had carried - and a rod of ebony in the other. With the sword he swung at the lion, cutting a large red welt across its face, blood spattering its mane.

The lion fell back on all fours and prepared to spring again but was blocked by a shield of crackling blue energy conjured from the rider's wand. In one swift movement, the rider flung the sword at the lion, which it nimbly dodged, and grabbed a short metal cylinder off his belt. He leaped off his horse and struck the metal stele into the ground, causing a larger blue forcefield to spring up around all of them - himself, his horse, Aravis, Hwin and Shasta. The lion smashed its paw into the forcefield, resulting in a ripple of energy out from his paw, but nothing else. It roared and roared in anger, but the mysterious stranger was shouting back, matching the Lion for volume and ferocity.

"_*Ai! Auta-Raa!*_"

"_*Ai! Inelendil Unatempla! ELBERETHIUS NA AUTA!*_"

The lion roared once more and shook its mane. Spittle flew with blood to the ground.

"LEAVE!" the stranger cried "Get ye gone, Ainu-beast! In the name of the Republic, go back to your dark corner!"

The lion took one last look at the group before leaping up the ridge and disappearing in the evening sunset.

"_*Ai! Ai! AI!*_"


	2. The Warrior

**Author's Notes:**

**- Veren De Strath, Zach and Ernie (no relation to McMillan) are all characters from my as yet unpublished Harry Potter fanfic series, ****_Threads. _****It is set in an alternate universe where Voldemort won the war, and has taken over the majority of England, with the UK's capital being removed to Holyrood, Scotland.**

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**II - The Warrior**

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Strath took one look at the parchment that had appeared out of thin air; its message burning white like fire. It read simply,

_Hermitage of the Southern March._

_Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient come anyway._

_Bring a horse and a sword._

It was signed with a Sigma rune and nothing else.

"Hey," Strath called over the dining hall of Holyroodhouse. "Ernie, can I borrow a sword."

"What?" Ernold Proudfoot shouted back. "What?"

"I need to borrow Hidhrol for a bit."

"What for," he asked as he switched tables and sat down next to Zacharias Avancyan.

"No idea," Veren said. "But I was just told I needed a sword."

"Where are you going," Zach queried.

"Again: no idea. But I know how to get there. I have a plan"

He downed the last of his Firewhiskey and got up to leave.

"Meet me by the New Stables in five minutes. Bring the sword."

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Strath fixed the last wire to the horse's chest and stepped back to check everything fitted. He had 'borrowed' a Project Indigo Mk IV prototype from the Institute over seventeen years ago and had never needed to use it until now. However, with it being a prototype, he had to make several adjustments to the power output circuits before he left.

"Here," Proudfoot offered. "Take the sword, but bring it back, alright."

He strapped it to his waist and rechecked Indigo. It was a small purple crystal enclosed in a black metal box full of wires, which itself was attached to a form-fitting harness which wrapped around the horse's midriff. He had cannibalised it from the original human version, so it didn't quite fit.

Zach was leading his own horse out of the stables and had saddled it up.

"What are you doing," Strath asked angrily. "I told you, I'm going alone, and -"

"Oh come on," Zach moaned. "What happened to the Three Musketeers-who-can't-actually-fire-muskets? He would have -"

"It doesn't matter what **he** would have done," he snapped, "because **he** isn't here. Is he!? And we are, so we have to..."

Strath sighed.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gotten angry," he continued. "Look, I need you to stay here and cover for me. You know what the King gets like if we disappear."

"Bad for morale," Proudfoot added. "You don't want the troops getting unnerved."

Zach began taking the bridle off his horse.

"Anyway, I've only got one Indigo," Strath said. "It'd take too long too make a replica. I need to go quickly."

"It's a multidimensional spacetime manipulator," Zach laughed. "It makes the words 'late' impossible."

"I know," Strath replied, swinging up onto his horse. "You developed it. But I'll be back, you know that."

"And what if you're not," Proudfoot asked. "What if you don't come back?"

Strath thought about it for a second.

"Zach is in charge, he always was my second. Tell Donalbain to hold Newcastle for as long as possible, and to try and retake Hull. Oh, and get the King to give the order to execute the Camelot Plan - he'll know what I mean. Apart from that you'll be fine."

He smiled wanly and turned his horse onto the gravel driveway that ran to the gates of Holyroodhouse. With a deep breath he spurred his horse on, keeping a steady hand on the ripcords of the harness. He checked his watch, which showed they were travelling 26km/h. The speed he needed was just over 30.

'Pity it's not 88mph,' he thought. 'That'd make it more dramatic.'

A bleep signalled that they had hit 30.53km/h, the heart rate of the horse needed to fool the sensor on the Indigo. He pulled the ripcords and, with a burst of light, he and the horse vanished.

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**Author's Notes:**

**- Holyrood is the Scottish Parliament, and Holyroodhouse is the primary official residence in Scotland.**

**- 88mph is the speed needed in a certain DeLorean DMC-12.**


End file.
